The Legend of Zelda cartoon holds a very special spot in my memory, as does the music. A lot of the music to The Legend of Zelda is readily available on CD. However, beyond the theme song for the cartoon, very little music from this short lived animated series is available. The series was part of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and The Legend of Zelda episodes usually ran on Fridays. The music for the series was composed by Shuki Levy who composed all of the best music from the 1980s and ’90s animated series and who currently holds the world record for television themes.

In this article I share my thoughts on the music of the series and share links to some of the music clips used during the series. Believe it or not, this was one of the first symphonic renditions of The Legend of Zelda theme.

The Legend of Zelda Theme Song

The theme song accompanies the opening credits and features narration by Princess Zelda explaining to viewer’s very simply that there is a Triforce of Wisdom and the Evil Wizard Ganon has the Triforce of Power, and that whomever gets both Triforces will rule the land forever. The imagery then changes to Ganon attacking and Link demonstrating that he’s not the perfect hero by making his signature line of “Excuuuuse me princess.” Before the days of orchestral game concerts this was the first rendition of The Legend of Zelda Title theme and Overworld theme with a symphonic sound which took the music to a new level with its use of strings and horns. The fact that the scenes in the openings also feature the sound of link sword beams give us a hint that the audio in this production took a lot of inspiration from the video game. The opening is available here on YouTube, user MRJStudios2010 has uploaded the entire series.

Ganon and The Music of the Underworld

The theme created for Ganon and the Underworld is a stringed version of the dungeon theme from the original Legend of Zelda. There are a few variations of this them throughout the 13 episode run of the series but it always accompanies Ganon when he’s issuing orders, vocalizing his latest plans, or grumbling from his lair after being defeated yet again. The theme is memorable and another first as a symphonic rendition of a classic theme. You can hear the stringed version play during the premiere episode “The Ringer” The theme has additional variations throughout the short series including another theme stringed theme plays usually when the bad guys are up to something, and although does not contain specific Zelda music, the strings are great.

The Action Theme

The action theme is the most memorable theme from the series. It usually starts with a sounding trumpet and snare drum and link springing into action and then has a nice lead up into The Legend of Zelda Overworld theme. The Action theme can heard during this scene in the series first episode, “The Ringer” and is regularly featured throughout the series. You can hear the same theme again in the first episode here.

There is an additional action theme featured in the series, which is a slight variation on the main version used throughout the show. It is more of an extended version with a lead up snare drum, you can hear it here and can also be associated to Princess Zelda taking action as one of the great things about this series is she’s just as valuable in a fight as Link.

Hyrule Kingdom/Zelda’s Theme

YouTube user Martin Anderson has done an excellent job recreating this theme. You can listen to his excellent work here. The theme is combination of harp and a pan flute. In the first episode you can hear it as is appears in the show here.

A lot of Zelda fans from what I’ve read online are not fans of the show because Link speaks often and regularly spouts of his signature phrase “Excuuuuse Me Princess.” I for one love the show because its a lot of fun, the characters are over the top except for Zelda who is probably one of the best representations of the character because she is presented as Link’s equal and they regularly work together to save the day – rather than the hero always saving the princess. My favorite Episode it the “The Missing Link” where it’s the princess saving the hero for a welcome change.

What do you think of the music in the show? Do you have any fond memories of this show?

Upcoming Events

Join the game industry’s top audio professionals to share knowledge and experience from the real-world addressing audio’s unique aesthetic, technical, business, and logistical problems. To choose from all Audio sessions in GDC Summits, VRDC@GDC and...

“CAPCOM LIVE!” is the official Capcom concert tour – an epic orchestral rock show featuring the music from the most memorable Capcom games with synchronized video and state-of-the-art lighting effects. Important: If you have already...